1 The statistics in this publication were compiled from data collected in the Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities Survey conducted throughout Australia in April 2004 as a supplement to the monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS).

2 The publication Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) contains information about survey design, sample redesign, scope, coverage and population benchmarks relevant to the monthly LFS, which also apply to supplementary surveys. It also contains definitions of demographic and labour force characteristics, and information about interviewing which are relevant to both the monthly LFS and supplementary surveys.

3 From April 2001, the LFS has been conducted using a redesigned questionnaire containing additional questions and some minor definition changes. These changes also affect the supplementary surveys. For further details, see Information Paper: Implementing the Redesigned Labour Force Survey Questionnaire (cat. no. 6295.0) and Information Paper: Questionnaires used in the Labour Force Survey (cat. no. 6232.0).

CAI IMPLEMENTATION

4 The ABS has begun the progressive implementation of computer assisted interviewing (CAI) into the LFS. Under CAI, interviewers record responses directly onto an electronic questionnaire in a laptop computer.

5 In the April 2004 survey, the CAI method was used on a random sub-sample of 40% of interviews for all states and territories. The remainder of interviews were conducted using the traditional 'pen and paper' method. The change in interviewing method is not expected to affect the published estimates in any meaningful way.

SCOPE

6 The scope of the survey included all persons aged 15 years and over who were usual residents of private dwellings except:

members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants) stationed in Australia.

7 The supplementary survey was conducted in both rural and urban areas in all states and territories, but excluded approximately 120,000 persons living in remote and sparsely settled parts of Australia who would otherwise have been within the scope of the survey. The exclusion of these persons will only have a minor impact on any aggregate estimates that are produced for states and territories, with the exception of the Northern Territory where such persons account for approximately 20% of the population.

COVERAGE

8 The estimates in this publication relate to persons covered by the survey in April 2004. In the LFS, coverage rules are applied which aim to ensure that each person is associated with only one dwelling, and hence had only one chance of selection in the survey. See Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) for more details.

DATA COLLECTION

9 Information was collected through interviews conducted over a two week period in April 2004.

10 The survey was conducted using a sub-sample of the Monthly Population Survey (MPS) sample. The MPS, which is described in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), comprises the monthly labour force topic and supplementary topics. The household sample for the MPS was selected using multistage sampling techniques and included approximately 30,000 private dwellings. Information relating to work in selected culture and leisure activities was collected from seven-eighths of the private dwellings selected for the MPS. Information was obtained from any responsible adult in the household who was asked to respond on behalf of one randomly selected person aged 15 years and over in the household.

DATA INTERPRETATION

11 Involvement in an activity relates to the 12 month period prior to interview. Work by a person in a particular activity was only recorded once, even if there were different periods over which that activity was undertaken or if there were several different organisations for which the person worked in that activity during the 12 months prior to interview. For example, a person who worked in different libraries was recorded only once as being involved in libraries.

12 Payment status was classified into two categories: some paid involvement and unpaid involvement only. Where persons were involved in more than one of the selected activities of the survey, the payment status for all culture and leisure activities (as presented in tables 1, 2, 3 and 14) was determined by considering all of those activities combined. For example, the payment status of a person who was paid for their activity in libraries and unpaid for their involvement in museums would be classified as having some paid involvement in culture and leisure activities.

13 In a few cases, detailed information (payment status, income from activity, whether involvement was part of main job and frequency of involvement) was not collected for those involved in particular activities. The method used to obtain the information was quite involved and in some cases where a person had reported involvement in a number of different activities the detailed information was incomplete, missing or incorrect for some of these activities. This has resulted in a discrepancy between the total number of persons with involvement for certain activities and the number for whom detailed information is available. Appendix 1 presents a table showing the size of the discrepancy for each activity in thousands and in percentage terms. The publication tables affected by the discrepancy are:

Table 5 - the components "some paid involvement" and "unpaid involvement only" do not add to "total involved" for some activities; the percentage with some paid involvement was calculated using the total of those where the payment status was collected

Tables 7 and 8 - the population of persons having some paid involvement for some activities may be slightly lower

Table 9 - the percentage of frequency of involvement was calculated using only those where the frequency was collected.

14 Paid culture or leisure activity as presented in table 3 was classified into two categories: part of main job and not part of main job. Persons involved in more than one type of paid culture or leisure activity were classified to 'part of main job' if one of their activities fulfilled this criterion.

15 A total for all activities and sub totals for art activities and for craft activities are not presented in Tables 8 and 9 as income and duration data were collected in ranges for each specific activity and therefore cannot be accurately aggregated across more than one activity.

16 Additional information on certain activities-namely, writing, live music performances, performing art performances, design and teaching-was collected and is presented in table 10.

17 Of the 35 activities for which data were collected, 28 could be directly related to the nine areas of training presented in table 11. The table below lists these 28 activities and their corresponding areas of training.

18 The seven culture or leisure activities not shown in the above table did not directly correspond to any of the areas of training. Involvement in a related culture or leisure field for persons with 'other' training also could not be determined.

19 Several activities have data missing in table 13 for 1993 and 1997 due to conceptual differences between survey periods. The activities which may not be compared across all survey points are: zoos and aquaria; national parks and reserves; botanic gardens; writing; publishing; performing arts (performers and non-performers); some visual art activities (electronic art/computer art and other art activities); some craft activities (other craft activities); all design activities; interactive content creation; and teaching of cultural activities. The activities which were excluded from the comparison of the 1997 and 2001 surveys are: national parks and reserves; performing arts (performers and non-performers); some visual art activities (electronic art/computer art and other art activities); some design activities (architecture, advertising, other design activities); and interactive content creation. Conceptual differences between surveys are discussed in paragraphs 21 to 31.

20 The ordering of the culture and leisure activities in tables 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 13 correspond to the ordering shown in the industry classification of the Australian Culture and Leisure Classifications (cat. no. 4902.0).

COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS SURVEYS

21 The Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities Survey was previously conducted as part of the MPS in 1993, 1997 and 2001 and as part of the Population Survey Monitor in 1998-99. Due to changes in the methodology and the questionnaire, caution should be exercised when making comparisons between these surveys.

22 In particular, as the 1998-99 data were collected using a different survey methodology and scope than the data collected for this publication, the context within which the 1998-99 questions were answered differed significantly. Consequently, comparisons with the 1998-99 data are not recommended and are not presented in this publication.

23 In 1993, information was obtained for every person aged 15 years and over in the household using face-to-face interviewing techniques. This information was obtained from a responsible adult who answered on behalf of the other members of the household. Respondents were shown a list of the selected culture and leisure activities on prompt cards, and asked to select which activities they had been involved in over the previous 12 months.

24 In 1997, the methodology changed to include, where appropriate, telephone interviewing. Information was obtained from two persons aged 15 years and over in each household. Respondents were asked if they had been involved in any culture or leisure activities in the previous 12 months, with the interviewer reading out the selected activities over the phone as prompts.

25 In 2001, the survey was again conducted using, where appropriate, telephone interviewing. Information was obtained from a responsible adult who answered on behalf of one randomly selected person aged 15 and over in each household. Respondents were asked if they had been involved in any culture or leisure activities in the previous 12 months, with the interviewer reading out the selected activities over the phone as prompts.

26 The 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2004 methodology are considered sufficiently similar that some comparisons can be made.

27 There have also been changes to the questionnaires which may have had an effect on the estimates for some activities. For some art and craft activities, changes in the questions may have resulted in an increase in the numbers reporting involvement in the 2001 survey. For involvement in the performing arts, greater detail was provided to respondents in the 2001 survey on the types of activities that should be included. This may have resulted in more persons reporting involvement. Other changes to the questionnaires are listed in paragraphs 28 and 29.

28 The following activities were introduced in the 1997 survey: botanic gardens; animal and marine parks; and electronic art. The design of multimedia titles was also separately identified as a form of design. While combined in 1993, involvement in writing and publishing were separately identified in 1997 and 2001, possibly resulting in more persons reporting they had some involvement in writing in the latter years. Similarly, involvement in writing and publishing as a teacher were separately identified in 1997 and 2001 which could have increased the number of persons who reported being involved in teaching in those years.

29 The following three activities were introduced in the 2001 survey: national parks and reserves; computer art; and interactive content creation, which included design of websites, computer games and other interactive software. Further to these additional activities, in 2001, respondents were asked if they had done any work in either architecture or advertising. If they had, they were classified as having an involvement in design. Architecture and advertising were not separately identified design activities in 1993 or 1997, possibly resulting in a lower number of persons being reported as being involved in design for those years. Design of multimedia titles was not separately identified as a form of design in 2001 (while it was in 1997). Electronic art was not included in the 2001 survey, and animal and marine parks were called zoos and aquaria.

30 Data content for 2004 was essentially the same as in 2001.

31 While caution should be exercised in making comparisons between the surveys due to the changes outlined above, summary data from the 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2004 surveys can be found in table 13. Additional summary data from 2001 and 2004 only can be found in table 14.

RELIABILITY OF THE ESTIMATES

32 Estimates in this publication are subject to sampling and non-sampling error:

Sampling error is the difference between the published estimate and the value that would have been produced if all dwellings had been included in the survey. For further information on sampling error, refer to the Technical Note.

Non-sampling errors are inaccuracies that occur because of imperfections in reporting by respondents and interviewers, and errors made in coding and processing data. These inaccuracies may occur in any enumeration, whether it be a full count or a sample. Every effort is made to reduce non-sampling error to a minimum by careful design of questionnaires, intensive training and supervision of interviewers and efficient processing procedures.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

33 ABS surveys draw extensively on information provided by individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated: without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

35 Current publications and other products released by the ABS are listed in the Catalogue of Publications and Products(cat. no. 1101.0). The Catalogue is available from any ABS office or on this site. The ABS also issues a daily Release Advice on the web site which details products to be released in the week ahead. The National Centre for Culture and Recreation Statistics theme page also contains a wealth of information and useful references.

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